Joe Feddersen views the world through an aesthetic lens that understands the visual beauty of the everyday, the echoing patterns throughout history and culture, the connecting threads through layers of meaning and complexity. In his artistic creations, he melds ideas, symbols, and geometric pattern from the weavings of the Plateau tribes, his ancestors, with Modernist considerations. Through these diverse references and his ability to make color, shape, texture, materiality communicate on a profoundly evocative level, Feddersen expresses the essential importance of home, of connections to people, place, and past generations, of being acutely aware of our physical and societal environment.

Joe Feddersen is Emeritus Faculty at The Evergreen State College. His art has been widely exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally, and is in numerous permanent collections, including the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis; Heard Museum, Phoenix; Missoula Art Museum; Portland Art Museum; Seattle Art Museum; Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of the American Indian; Tacoma Art Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art. The touring exhibition Joe Feddersen: Vital Signs, organized by Rebecca J. Dobkins and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, is currently at the Tacoma Art Museum, and is accompanied by a major catalogue.

This exhibition is part of a two-year celebration of the art of Joe Feddersen; many individuals and organizations have made this possible. Evergreen Gallery and artist Joe Feddersen sincerely thank them for their generosity and creative energy: Froelick Gallery, Portland; Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR; University of Washington Press; the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, with hands-on assistance from the hot shop crew; Tacoma Art Museum. The Evergreen State College has supported the project in myriad ways; special thanks to President Purce and College supporters Sandy Desner and Laura Hogge, Fred Goldberg and Carolyn Lakewold, Anne and David Proffitt, Mary and Dan Weiss; to the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center; and to Bob Woods, Tanner Milliren, Jeff Konen, Mattie LaRue, Erin McGuire for studio assistance.

Landscape Visions

Exhibition dates: September 30 – October 27, 2009

General view of exhibition. Photo: Thomas Johnston

R.T. Leverich, Traveling Over White Peaks, 2009, carved onyx

Everyday we see the land, sky, vegetation surrounding us, and absorb it to varying degrees. The artists in this exhibition see, absorb, and then offer their visions back to us – depicting, expressing, embellishing, imagining. The evolution of perception continues as they help us see our surroundings in new ways.

Thank you to the artists and lenders who made this exhibition possible: private collectors, Francine Seders Gallery, Grover/Thurston Gallery, James Harris Gallery, Catherine Person Gallery, The James F. Holly Rare Book Collection of The Evergreen State College Library, The Evergreen State College Art Collection.

Senior Thesis Exhibitions

Opening: Thursday May 28, 5-8pm

Through June 12(limited open hours week of June 8-12)

Ceradwen Bacon

Ceradwen Bacon's work is based on ideas of home and memory. She uses mixed media sculpture and drawings to explore a set of connections between the individual and their surroundings. Images of landscapes and past homes are blended with a fantastical nature to create a sense of the remembered place.

Elise Harper

Photographer Elise Harper is concerned with color and its role in still life and portraiture. Pompoms, craft supplies, construction paper, and dollar store ceramic figurines often appear in her imagery. Elise pulls inspiration from mundane objects and art history, while employing her sense of playful nostalgia in this series.

Emily Holmes

Emily Holmes uses camera-less photo techniques to examine a floral print vintage muumuu. She relies on the color darkroom and its technological constraints to produce images large and enlarged, specimens or archives, of this second-hand, tattered dress.

Alicia Lewis

Sculptor Alicia Lewis works primarily in clay. Her current body of work investigates the preservation of memory in the body, using medieval Christian and Buddhist reliquaries as inspiration.

Jessi Brizee Meliza

Jessi Brizee Meliza's work incorporates her previous studies of book-binding, writing, animation and flat art. "Cookie Tin Banjo" is a story told in many forms: a picture-book and a short animation presented with supporting ephemera.

Anette Santomassimo

In describing her art, Annette Santomassimo states: “Having grown up with two parents who are police officers, I’ve always had a complex relationship with our society's belief in the potential for violence as a positive, protective force. I’ve juxtaposed troubling images from my childhood against the comforting forms of security blankets with the intent of problematizing and hopefully understanding this current in my own life, and by extension, our society as a whole.”

Art by Evergreen Faculty and Staff

This exhibition celebrates the creativity of Evergreen faculty and staff. Everyone working at The Evergreen State College contributes to the creation of an exceptional learning experience – and many also create exceptional works of art.

Reading Rivers: Basia Irland's Books, Manuscripts, and Scrolls

Opening remarks by President Purce, followed by music about the Nisqually River composed and performed by Shooting Stars Performing Ensemble.

Basia Irland is a sculptor and installation artist, a poet and book artist, and an activist in international water issues. Her thoughtful interdisciplinary projects combine beautiful artworks, a fascination with research, and a participative engagement with the viewer.

The exhibition at Evergreen Gallery includes a survey of Irland’s earlier artworks, which provides context for her recent project created while artist-in-residence here, A Gathering of Waters: The Nisqually River, Source to Sound. Through this grass-roots participatory project, Irland has sought to connect people and bring more attention to ongoing efforts for protecting and honoring our rivers and streams. While exploring the effect of human controls and demands on rivers, it celebrates the people who work to conserve our watershed.

Irland is Professor Emerita, University of New Mexico, Department of Art and Art History. She has created projects about water issues throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in 22 permanent collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Public Archives of Canada, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She has received numerous grants and awards including a Fulbright Senior Research Award to Southeast Asia. In 1999, Irland produced a documentary that was shown on PBS: A Gathering of Waters: The Rio Grande, Source to Sea. A monograph on her art, titled Water Library, was published in 2007 by University of New Mexico Press.